Method of raising or forcing liquids.



H. A. HUMPHREY. METHOD OF RAISING 0R FORCING LIQUIDS. AYPLIOATION FILED MAR.15, 1911.

1,072,852. Patented Sept. 9, i913.

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WITNESSES INVENTUH Way 4 Tram/Er.

HERBERT ALFRED HUMPHREY, OF LONDON, ENG-LAND, ASSIGNOR TO HUlVIlPI-IREY GAS PUMP COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

METHOD OF RAISING 0R FORCING LIQUIDS.

street, Westminster, in thecounty of London, England, consulting engineer, have 1n-.

vented certain newv and useful Improvements in Methods of Raising or Forcing Liquids, of which the following is a specificatio-n.

My invention relates to improvements in the method of moving liquid by the expansion of an ignited compressed combustible. charge.

The purpose of the present invention is to apply a portion of the energy of the combustion of a preliminary charge, to introduce a supplemental charge to be ignited byzthe heat of the preliminary charge Iapply a portion of the energy of the combustion of a combustible charge prelim inarily introduced or admitted .into the combustion, chamber to force liquid into the separate chamber so as to. compress air therein, and allow some of the compressed air to enter the combustion chamber, carrying'with it combustible, so soon after the ignition has occurred that the combustible is ignited by the still burning preliminary charge or very hot products of combustion during the same stroke. In this manner the work of expansion is augmented, producing the results aforesaid. The combustible thus introduced may be of a kind which could notbe easily ignited if it formed the combustible constituent of the preliminary combustible charge or of the sole combustible charge. This is of particular importance when it is desired to apply the method of forcing water to the propulsion of ships, for instance by pro jecting a stream of liquid from the stern of the ship. For when such an apparatus is used on board ship it is a desideratum that the fuel employed should be of as high a specific gravity as possible. The invention is not limited, however, to the in troduction of a heavy oil or other fuel of comparatively high specific gravity. The same kind offuel maybe introduced in this manner as is used for the preliminary combustion; or instead of compressing air in the separate vessel the liquid forced into a the vessel may compress a combustible mix- Specification of Letters Patent.

7 Application filed March 15, 1911.

'is locked until released as aforesaid.

fore omitted for the sake of Patented Sept. 9, 1913. Serial No. 614,554.

,ture and this maybe introduced into the burning preliminary charge.

As an example of the manner in which my invention may be carried out I will describe its application to that type of apparatus m which the cycle is as follows:

(1) Ignition, (2) combustion, expansion and propulsion of liquid along the discharge pipe, expulsion of products of. combustion by an inward flow of liquid from the discharge pipe, (4) the compression of an elastic cushion by the said i11- ward flow, (5) expansion of the elastic cushion driving the liquid outwardly again and an intake of a fresh combustible charge, (6) compression of the fresh combustible charge by a second inward flow followed by the ignition and compression of this charge. 7

The accompanying drawing illustrates merely by way of example, means suitable for effecting the method herein described and claimed.

The view is vertical section, showing the combustion chamber, the supplemental chamber and the valve controlled inlets, exits and connections.

In the accompanying drawing 1 is the top of the combustion chamber and 6 and 7 are the usual exhaust and inlet valves which mutually control one another in the following manner. The inlet valve 7 opens under suction and in closing under the action of a spring releases the exhaust valve 6 which is free to open when-the pressure within the combustion chamber has fallen to a suitable extent, the exhaust valve 6 is shut by i1npact of liquid and in closing releases the inlet valve 7 and each valve on shutting Suitable valve gear has been shown in a num ber of my co-pending applications, as for example, Serial No. 438,427, and is thereclearness. Opening into the combustion chamber at apart 8 below the lowest level reached by the liquid during the cycle, is a second chamber 2 into which air is drawn, and in which it is ultimately compressed and thence delivered to the top of chamber 1. Chamber 2 is fitted with a valve 3 controlled by a spring so that it opens when the pressure in chamber 2 falls slightly below that of the atmosphere. Valve l need not necessarily be controlled by a spring but may open under its own weight when the pressure in chamber 2 is sufficiently reduced. 7

For the purpose of the present example it is assumed that valves 3 and t are mutually controlled in the same way that valves 6 and 7 are controlled. Also that the respective valve gears are interconnected so that the opening of valve 7 releases valve 1-, and valves 45 and 7 open during the same part of the cycle, and valves 3 and 6 open during 7 another part of the cycle. A suitable method of linking up two sets of valve controlling gear has been illustrated in F 7 of my copending application, Serial No. 438,427.

a The heavy oil or other liquid combustible is shown as supplied from a feed tank 9 past a non-return valve 10 to the spray producer or atomizer 11 connected by pipe 12 with chamber 2, and by pipe 13'with chamber 1. Short bent tubes 1% having open ends dipping into the liquid fuel and into the mouth oi pipe 13 are shown as part of the spray producing device, but any known form of spraying device or atomizer may be used. A non-return valve 5 controlled by a spring, normally closes the opening between pipe 13 and chamber 1, and the spring 1011 this valve is made stronger than the spring on the admission valve 7 so that during the portion of the cycle in which explosive mixture is drawn in through valve 7, valve 5 remains closed.

The action of the apparatus may now be described, and it is convenient to start from that part of the cycle in which the liquid in the combustion chamber land air chamber 2 has reached its lowest level at tie end of the expansion stroke, say to the level 6 Chamber 1 will then be full of burned products, and chamber 2 will be full of air at about atmospheric pressure, wl ich has entered past valve 3 as the liquid fell in chamber 2. At this part of the cycle the main column of liquid in the discharge pipe is moving outwardly with considerable velocity,-and exhaust-valve 6 has opened by its gown weight, but valve t is not permitted 50 to open until valve 7, which operates later, has opened. The level of the supply liquid is such that liquid rises through the liquid supply valves to the level of say 6 Z), exhausting part of the products of combustion throughvalve 6 by the time that the main column comes to rest. The column of liquid now returns toward the chambers and the liquid rises mostly in chamber 1, which has an open exit for the burned gases, and only slightly in chamber 2, since valves 3 and 4e are both shut. On reaching valve 6, the liquid shuts this valve in the usual way, and

p the continued movement of the liquidcauses the cushion stroke, in which the burned products above the levelot valve 6 in chamber of the liquid column, and the liquid in chamber 1, falling below the level of valve 6, causes admission valve 7 to open against the action of its spring and a combustible charge to be drawn into chamber 1. At the same time the air in chamber 2 is also expanding and valve lopens under its own weight so soon as the pressure is low enough.

As the moving liquid comes to rest again valve 7 shuts by the action of its spring. There is now a combustible mixture in chamber 1, air in chamber 2. and all valves are shut except valve 4. Again the main column of liquid returns under the action of its head or pressure and causes compression of the charge in 1 and or the airin 2 to approximately the same pressure and the liquid is brought to rest. Ignition of the combustible charge in chamber 1 now occurs and there is a sudden increase of pressure, the first effect of Which is to drive liquid into chamber 2. The liquid columnbetween the two chambers is short as compared with the main column of liquid in the discharge pipe and the latter therefore getsinto motion more slowly. Indeed so rapid isthe movement of liquid which, rising in chamber 2, further compresses the air herein,

thatthe liquid may drive the air out (it 2 until it shuts valve 4 before the main column" of liquid has moved more than a littleway.

The first part of the energy of expansion in:

chamber 1 is therefore mostly spent in imparting kinetic energy to a mass of liquid which rises in chamber 2, and in compressing the air in 2, but because of the said hinetic energy being converted into pressure energy, as the pressure of air m'chamber 2 increases and the motion of the liquid therein is arrested, the pressure attained by the air exceeds the pressure in chamber 1 and valve 5 is forced open admitting the highly compressed air to chamber 1.

The air in passing through the atomizer 11' with considerable velocity draws the heavy oil through the tubes 14 and carries it alcngin fine particles to be burned with the air on entering the combustionchamber 1 which now. containsproducts of combusioe der the action of its spring. Expansion proceeds in chambers 1 and 2 until the pressure is low enough to allow valve 6 to open by its own weight and valve 3 to open against the action of its spring. The falling liquid draws air into chamber 2 past valve 3 until the liquid level is again at a a,

the main column of liquid is once more at rest, and the valve 3 shuts under the action of its spring, when all is ready for the commencement of a fresh cycle.

It will be seen that when valve 4 opens the pressure in chamber 2 is nearly atmospheric, consequently a level for the oil in chamber 9 can be found so that the oil automatically feeds itself into the atomizer 11 during a portion of each cycle when the pressure is low, and valve 10 prevents the oil thus fed from being blown back when th pressure in 11 rises.

It will be evident that the invention is applicable to the other types of apparatus described in the specifications mentioned at the beginning of this specification and when applied to pumps with two combustion chambers in which ignition occurs alternately in each chamber then one air chamber in which the air is to be compressed and from which it is to be delivered through the atomizer may serve for each working chamber in turn.

What I claim is 1. The method which consists in reciprocating liquid, the initial movement of the outstroke due to a preliminary expansible charge, utilizing energy derived from said outstroke to introduce a supplemental eX- pansible charge to cooperate with the pre liminary charge.

2. The method which consists in reciprocating liquid, the. initial movement of the outstroke due to a preliminaryexpansible charge, utilizing energy derived IEIfOlllSEtld outstroke to force air under pressure,

mingled with a combustible into the heat" zone of the preliminary expansible charge.

3. The method which consists in reciprocating liquid, the initial movement of the outstroke due to a preliminary expansible charge, utilizing energy derived from said outstroke to force liquid to compress an elastic fluid so that the same shall be mingled with a combustible fluid, then introducing the combustible mixture under pressure and expanding the same to supplement the preliminary expansible charge.

4'- The method which consists in reciprocating liquid, the initial movement of the outstroke due to a preliminary expansible charge, utilizing energy derived from said outstroke to force liquid to compress an elastic fluid so that the same shall be mingled with a combustible fluid, then introducing the combustible mixture under pressure as a supplemental charge into the heat zone of the preliminary charge.

5. The method which consists in reciprocating liquid, the initial movement of the outstroke due to a preliminary expansible charge, utilizing energy derived from said outstroke to force liquid to compress an elastic fluid so that the same shall be mingled with 'a combustible fiuid, then introducing the combustible mixture under pressure as a supplemental charge to be ignited by the heat resulting from the ignited preliminary charge.

6. The method which consists in reciprocating liquid, the initial movement of the outstroke due to a preliminary expansible charge, utilizing energy derived from said outstroke acting through a liquid piston, to compress an air cushion, mingling the compressed air with a combustible and delivering the mixture as a supplemental charge to cooperate with the preliminary charge.

7. The method which consists in reciprocating liquid, the first outstroke being due to expansive force, utilizing energy derived from the expansion of a preliminary expansible charge to start the outstroke and to compress an elastic fluid, utilizing the compressed elastic fluid to introduce a supplemental expansible charge, and expanding the same to complete said outstroke.

In testimony whereof I have signed my 'name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HERBERT ALFRED HUMPHREY.

Witnesses:

Josnrri MILLARD, W. J. SKERTEN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. G. 

